The Chairman of the College of Policing says that recording trivial incidents is distracting officers and undermining public confidence. The Times has more.
Police chiefs have called for a complete overhaul of the recording of non-crime hate incidents, warning that it has become an “impediment” to officers doing their job.
The Chairman of the College of Policing, Lord Herbert of South Downs, said the Government should consider scrapping the practice in its present form, making him the most senior policing figure to criticise how hate incidents are logged.
The College is in consultation with Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, about rewriting the guidance governing the recording of non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs) in response to inconsistency and controversy over its misuse.
More than 13,200 hate incidents were recorded in the 12 months to June this year, according to figures from 45 of Britain’s 48 police forces.
Last month the Times reported that children were among thousands of people being investigated by police for NCHIs. One force recorded an incident against two secondary school girls who said that another pupil smelt “like fish”.
Herbert told the Times Crime and Justice Commission that the requirement to record non-crime hate incidents had become “a distraction” and was undermining public confidence in the police.
“We need to prevent harm, we need to ensure that minorities are protected and be alive to things like antisemitism but on the other hand we must ensure that police are not drawn into the trivial,” he said. “We want to apply a commonsense approach, where the police officer would receive a complaint and they would be able to say, ‘We’re sorry, we can understand you find that offensive but it’s not a matter for us’.”
Asked whether the non-crime hate incident category should be scrapped, he replied: “Potentially.”
He added: “I think it has become an impediment to the police doing what we want the police to do, which is ensure that they are preventing harm, identifying where there is risk of harm, ensuring that it can be prevented, because I think that the category itself has become controversial and a distraction from what the police need to be doing.”
Worth reading in full.
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“One force recorded an incident against two secondary school girls who said that another pupil smelt “like fish”.”
Walk through the corridors of a single school at a single lunchtime and you’ll be able to record 13,200 non crime hate incidents. Learning to deal with conflict is called “growing up”.
Oh, I forget. They don’t want people to grow up. They want a nation of snowflakes.
Still, it’s nice that the Chairman of the College of Policing appears to be waking up.
Personally I think he’s waking up to the reality that people won’t accept crimes (real ones) not being investigated and demands for more more funding while hundreds of officers a year are lost while they deal with “non crimes”
I’m sorry for what Alison Pearson has gone through but it’s only when people like her are affected (and the associated bad publicity) that there any hope of things changing
So depressing that even those who seem to be vaguely on the side of good sense still have to justify their views with caveats “recording trivial incidents is distracting officers and undermining public confidence.”
How about things are not crimes are none of the police’s business, full stop.
Sorry, Off Topic
The BBC is at it again with the cyclone that just hit Mayotte. Last night’s news bulletin (I watched it so you don’t have to) dramatically announced many thousands killed due to a devastating cyclone. The real death toll may never be known they said. One quote said that every house was destroyed no matter how it was built. Their website this morning has downgraded that to hundreds, but also according to their website people are beginning to die of thirst and hunger less than 24 hours after it hit! It’s all down to climate change they now say. Bullshit piled on bullshit.
Yes this was a damaging storm that probably has killed people, but even in the BBC’s own footage all the properly built houses looked OK. Even in the shanty towns most of the buildings still had their roofs. This morning they have found some worse footage of damaged shanty towns, but that is hardly a surprise given their construction.
The claim that this is the worst cyclone in 70 years to hit the island maybe correct, but if it’s lucky, such a tiny island probably misses most of them. It’s Russian roulette. What that statement really tells you is that 70 years ago when CO2 was much lower a worse cyclone hit, but somehow if we give up our cars right now we can prevent cyclones like this happening in the future. They think we are stupid.
As an aside it noticeable that our ex-colonies have prospered, many are in the G20. France’s ex-colonies are mostly failed shit holes. I’m not sure why.
What’s with this, ”we need to ensure minorities are protected” nonsense, anyway? Isn’t that just code for, ”we need to continue to pander to and prioritise everyone who isn’t white British, whilst simultaneously carrying on with our two-tier policing mission against said right-wing extremist natives”?
Speaking of the ‘protected ones’ in society, who we must avoid offending at all costs…More from Clown World, U.K;
”A convicted terrorist is suing a pub after he was allegedly “deeply offended” by a sign that “scared him”.
Khalid Baqa, 60, who has spent four years in prison for creating Jihadi propaganda, said that the “depiction of a bearded Arab/Turk” on the boozer’s sign “incites violence”.
He is now suing The Saracen’s Head Inn in Amersham, Buckinghamshire for almost £2,000, stating that the figure on the sign – which depicts a brown-skinned man of Arab or Turkish descent – is racist.
If successful, the 60-year-old plans to take on 30 other pubs with the same name.
However, the landlord of the inn is fighting back against the lawsuit which he branded a “complete joke”.
Speaking to The Sun, Robbie Hayes said: “This has been called The Saracen’s Head for 500 years.
“He’s just chancing his hand. Of course it worries me – you never know with people like this.”
“We won’t be pushed around and change hundreds of years of history just because some loudmouth wants to cause trouble.”
https://www.gbnews.com/news/convicted-terrorist-deeply-offended-pub-sign-sues-boozer-amersham-buckinghamshire
I can see Kneel forcing pub name changes in the interests of DIE although the reality will be “oh what a good idea and what a marvellous new way to undermine British culture.”
I’ll be honest, this sums up my thoughts on Starmer;
https://x.com/TPointUK/status/1868582764003696947
Hahaha! Probably!
“What’s with this, ”we need to ensure minorities are protected” nonsense, anyway? “
Exactly – his job is to protect EVERYONE from CRIME. That’s it.
Off-T.
Labour setting up more local fiefdoms in the certain knowledge that they face wipe-out next May.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn0xz4938z9o
https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/local-elections-may-be-axed-2025/
And next May’s elections to be cancelled particularly where Labour face wipe-out. What a surprise.
The College is in consultation with Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, about rewriting the guidance
But Cooper wants to make NCHIs more draconian. They are a wonderful tool for intimidating a population. And combined with the two-tier justice system, Cooper is well on the way to realising her preferred option of a Stasi state.
As I understand it, it was the College of Policing that took it upon themselves to record NCHIs, which is the reason that when the Conservatives tried to rein them back, and after court cases deemed them unlawful, they instead increased.
So by passing the buck to the Labour government, is he lying that the policy is handed down from government, or is he admitting that he willfully ignored the policy of the previous government?
Well it tells us all we need to know (we did on this site but millions of our fellow citizens have no idea) just who makes the rules these days. Not Parliament. Quangos. Unaccountable, unelected and generally unknown.
After a careful rethink they issue guidance which corrects the grammar in the third sentence paragraph 13.1b
Carry on!